International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract

Upon the mineralogical researches on the jade from China in 1846 and 1863, Damour, a French mineralogist, discovered two mineral components of the jade and named them as “nephrite” and “jadeite”. Then Japanese scholars introduced his research results to Japan and translated “nephrite” and “jadeite” into Nefuraito( “Ruan Yu”) and Kōgyoku ( “Ying Yu”) in Japanese according to their small difference in mohs' hardness. Then at the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese scholars cited their Japanese translations and transferred them into “Ruan Yu” and “Ying Yu” in Chinese. This makes people always mistakenly think the two names are their Chinese translations and they have been used in various formal occasions, which leads to unnecessary misunderstandings and exerts a certain negative effect on the development of China’s jade industry. Looking into the original meanings of “nephrite” and “jadeite” created by Damour, author thinks it is more appropriate to translate “nephrite” and “jadeite” into “Yushan Shi” and “Yuhui Shi” in Chinese.